Glad reunion at MTRCB

I often greet friends with a “’Pi Burpday” para maiba lang (just to be different), heh heh. Besides, the brevity lends itself to textese.

This time I’ll do it for print, and wish Ms. Gladys Reyes Sommereux, child star, lifetime entertainer, current TV host, and a board member of the MTRCB or Movie and Television Ratings & Classification Board, a belated ‘Pi Burpday!

We thank her gladly, too, all of us who are her fellow BMs, for the terrific birthday celebration she organized and hosted last Thursday at our 4th floor boardroom. She turned practically the entire day into a multi-dimensional celebration, as well as a gladsome reunion.

For one, she invited our former chair, Senator Grace Poe Llamanzares, not only to grace the occasion, but to confer and receive an award, and also to be a guest interviewee, together with her husband Neil, for the taping of the TV show Moments.

The show which has been running for six years now promotes family values, zeroing in on the strong parnership of husband and wife to strengthen the foundation of the family.

For this season, Gladys is co-producing it for Net 25, a UHF channel that can be viewed on free TV as well as cable. It has featured celebrity couples such as Judy Ann Santos and Ryan Agoncillo, and Sen. Bong Revilla and Congresswoman Lani Mercado. For its Saturday, July 27 airing at 7 to 8 p.m., Gladys speaks at length with newly elected Senator Grace Poe Llamanzares and her husband Neil Llamanzares.

It was the first time the lady I used to call Ma’m Grace made an appearance — after surprisingly topping the senatorial elections — at the government agency which she headed so effectively for over two years, during which time she effortlessly gained the love and respect of everyone — from staffers to board members as well as industry stakeholders.

To a woman (and to a man), we BMs had supported her senatorial campaign in various ways, while making sure that our membership in an agency under the Office of the President was not at all compromised. Most of the ladies joined her in wet-market jaunts to help her distribute permissible campaign giveaways. We attended her rallies and convoys around town as further show of support, and joined lugaw dinners and other fund-raising activities, always in our individual capacities.

We wore Grace Poe T-shirts and tacked on her campaign stickers on our vehicles’ windshields, distributed the same among friends and relations, hung up tarps on our residences’ gates. In my own self-appointed capacity as global ambassador of perennial goodwill, why, I even mailed Grace Poe collaterals such as those tarps and t-shirts and small calendars to my cousin in Riyadh who happens to enjoy the devotion of hundreds of Pinoys employed at a large hospital that she helps administer.

We were all happy to see her back after she had to take a family vacation soon after she came out No. 1. When Senator-elect Grace (well, today’s her first day of office) stepped into the board lounge at exactly 4 p.m. last Thursday — for the merienda buffet Gladys had prepared — everyone finally had a chance to congratulate her face-to-face. And of course pose with her in countless photo-ops.

As I shook her hand to offer my congrats, I said somewhat sheepishly, “Ma’m, este, Senadora, sorry I under-estimated your chances when I said to you the last time we met that you would wind up no lower than second.” To which, this quick riposte: “BM Krip, I still thank you for that, as it was the highest ranking anyone had predicted.”

Ha ha! Yehey! Photo ops!

Everyone then trooped up to the 4th Floor for the Moments taping, while I stayed at the board lounge to help the kitchen ladies tidy up the leftovers, collect the plates, utensils and glasses, and wash them sparkling clean.

I caught the tail-end of the interview, just as host Gladys was thanking the Llamanzares couple, Neil most profusely for his rare appearance before the cameras, since he’s really avoided the spotlight all the while that he helped in the brainstorming sessions for his wife’s campaign strategy in his low-key and soft-spoken manner.  

Sen. Grace’s successor, MTRCB chair Atty. Toto Villareal, was then called to the dais to lead in the conferment of an award of appreciation for MTRCB vice chair Direk Maning Borlaza for his continuing passion for service even if his health had taken a brief downturn recently. An award was also conferred to the chair he had served previously, Senator Grace.

Vice chair Maning took the opportunity onstage to pretend that an interview session was still ongoing, if only to pose an academic question: What can Senator-elect Grace Poe Llamanzares say about all the apparent hopes now a-forming that she may be destined for an even higher position? Say, by 2016?

I must acknowledge here that while she smiled and shook her head and pointed at vice chair Maning as if to say “You’re being naughty,” her reply only reaffirmed my own trust in her ability to soon engage her fellow legislators, and the media and the public, in a most pleasantly articulate, charming and diplomatic way.  

Then the group photos, of course. And the rush among phone-cam adepts to access their FB accounts and be among the first to share the joyous images of reunion. Well, BM Liezl Martinez beat us all with her Instagram. Second to make it to his popular Wall was BM Mario Hernando. Third was BM Milo Sogueco. I came in a poor fourth, since BM Marra PL Lanot kept asking me something while I was rushing to download my pics in my Mac Book Pro even as we had already collected our fave entrees from the dinner buffet table.

But such has been the happy camaraderie among BMs since we all enjoyed the spirited and inspiring leadership of “Ma’m Grace.” And it’s gotten so that even with a tough act to follow, chair Toto has stepped in so admirably, initiating his own programs that have been turning our Board into a very active and energetically engaged agency.

All of the committee work apart from preview duties hasn’t stopped BMs from exercising inherent social and entertainment skills. For instance, in the brief recess between the merienda and the program taping, BM Jackie Gavino made sure to gather the ladies in a chorus line to rehearse an instant Zumba number.

Joining her were BMs Tessie Daza who quickly contributed a turn-and-twist or two, Tess Villarama, Keats Syquia-Musngi, Cheche Camacho Conrado, Joy Bautista, Liezl Martinez, Manet Dayrit, Ces Nubla, Pat Binungcal and Marra PL Lanot. BM Atty. Gaby Concepcion was a bit tardy as usual, but she proved to be a fast learner, as usual, and so was mincing her own steps in no time.

And so, as the dinner and nightcap progressed, we witnessed that dance number — photos and video of which may have to be previewed first before possibly grudging approval of public dissemination.

Suffice it to say that in the social media exchange of Likes and Comments that followed, only within a few hours of the posted images, there was occasion, again, to affirm what some of us already know.

A friend asked why Sen. Grace seemed to have had a makeover, in a departure from her former public persona as MTRCB chair: “I didn’t even recognize her at all! But I think she was unique with her ‘simple’ style — she should really keep it. Esp. if it was really an external projection of her inner self! Made her stand out among everybody else made up, made over, etc.” To which Milo quickly replied: “She is still the same po. She just got out of a photoshoot for a mag which is why she was so dolled up.”

And in his own Wall, posting a photo of himself with Sen. Grace which I happen to have had the privilege of taking with his phone cam, Milo recounted:

“When I was with her for a casual lunch last week, there were some magical observations that I experienced when I was walking with her across the street and going to the restaurant inside the mall:

“She literally stops traffic. She would stop cars of all types, from Volvos to the more humble and more common Japanese cars, taxis, to the jeepneys. She would make drivers smile and wave at her and make their bosses go down to take a picture with her as well.

“Inside the mall, she would make the customers take stolen shots of her, gushing like little kids amidst celebrity. She would likewise make the kitchen staff group and bond together to shake her hand and greet her.

“Grace Poe is in the building! She was there! And her presence was acknowledged by everyone. Walang pinili. Mayaman. Mahirap. Babae. Lalaki. Bata. Matanda. Kaya siya #1! Grace really has IT!. It is not just the POE name. In the years to come, she will prove that she is more than that! There is hope now in the future.”

Hmm. Well, as a clairvoyeur myself, one forever blessed with prescience, I couldn’t help but Comment back:

“I totally agree with what you say. Sen. Ma’m Grace will be a force in the future.” Smiley.